Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

Parental incarceration is believed to have deleterious effects on children's cognitive and social development as well as educational attainment. Research suggests that parent absence (and therefore
parental incarceration) may have varying effects across gender. I evaluate this hypothesis empirically,
using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 Child & Young Adult Supplement
(NLSY79CYA) to estimate the long-term effect of parental incarceration on a child's level of educational
attainment and wages. This paper extends the literature by estimating unique incarceration effects for
each parent-child gender combination, utilizing data that identities only incarcerated parents living in
the child's household. I present evidence supporting negative parent-child same-sex incarceration effects
on a child's future wages, and slight but generally negative effects on educational attainment.
I conclude that parental incarceration largely impacts future earnings as a negative shock to a child's development
and social capital.

Bibliography Citation

Brown, Christian. "Estimating the Gender-Dependent Effects of Parental Incarceration." Working Paper, Department of Economics, Middle Tennessee State University, June 2011.